Method and apparatus for accessing a common database from a mobile device and a computing device

ABSTRACT

A method for accessing data contained in a data network using a mobile device or a different computing device. Common data may be accessed by both the mobile device and the computing device, with the mobile device communicating over a wireless data network and the computing device communicating over a data network such as the Internet, a private network or a network of public and private networks. A different format may be used to process and display the data on each of the two devices, with the data being converted as necessary for display on the devices. The data may be updated by the computing device and then made available to the mobile device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional application of U.S. application Ser.No. 09/410,859, filed on Oct. 1, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,895,234,entitled “Method and Apparatus for Accessing a Common Database from aMobile Device and a Computing Device,” which is a continuation of priorapplication Ser. No. 08/987,346, filed on Dec. 9, 1997, entitled “Methodand Architecture for Self-Provisioning a Rendezvous to Ensure SecureAccess to Information in a Database from Multiple Devices,” now U.S.Pat. No. 6,065,120, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightswhatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to user authentication systems over data networksystems and, more particularly, relates to a method and system forself-provisioning, through a first device, a rendezvous to ensure secureaccess to managed information in a user account by other devices throughthe rendezvous in a data network, wherein the rendezvous is generallyidentified by a URL, the first device, coupled to the data network, runsa first browser under a first communication protocol and the otherdevices in the same data network run a second browser under a secondcommunication protocol.

2. Description of the Related Art

The Internet is a rapidly growing communication network ofinterconnected computers around the world. Together, these millions ofconnected computers form a vast repository of hyperlinked informationthat is readily accessible by any of the connected computers fromanywhere and anytime. To provide mobility and portability of theInternet, wireless computing devices were introduced and are capable ofcommunicating, via wireless data networks, with the computers on theInternet. With the wireless data networks, people, as they travel ormove about, are able to perform through the wireless computing devicesexactly the same tasks they could do with computers on the Internet.

The most common remote access paradigm is, as of today, the one in whicha laptop personal computer is equipped with a wireless communicationmechanism, for example, a wireless modem. This paradigm may remainuseful for a considerable number of applications and users, but therehas been a growing need for a mobile paradigm in which the Internet canbe instantly accessed by mobile devices, such as cellular phones andpersonal digital assistants. The mobile devices are generally designedsmall in size and light in weight. With increasing data processingcapabilities in the mobile devices, more and more users start carryingthe devices around to materialize their unproductive time intoproductive time. As more commonly seen, regular mobile phones can returncalls, check voice mail or make users thereof available forteleconferences anywhere and anytime, but desired mobile phones, notjust reactive to calls but also proactive, can meld voice, data, andpersonal information with manager-like functionality into a singlehandset that can effectively, through a host computer, access a myriadof public and enterprise information services in the Internet.

The evolution of the mobile phones or the mobile devices has been fueledby the demand of users for immediate access to the information they arelooking for. For example, a traveler may request an exact flightschedule when he is on his way to the airport, or a trader may purchaseshares of stock at a certain price. The pertinent information from thesetransactions may include the airline and the flight number for thetraveler, or the number and price of the shares being purchased by thetrader. To be timely informed, a preferable way is to communicate theinformation requests electronically into the wireless data network. Thedata network, for example, connects to a flight information server orstock quote server so that the desired flight information or the currentstock price can be retrieved therefrom on demand. However, it becomestroublesome or impractical to key in lengthy information querieselectronically into the data network through a mobile device thattypically has a keypad with a few buttons, much less functional comparedto a keyboard in a personal computer system. There is, therefore, agreat need for a method and system for efficiently communicating desiredtransactions into a data network through which the transactions can beperformed or pertinent information can be retrieved, without the need tokey in such information every time the transactions or the informationis desired. In many cases, the desired information in a user account,especially regarding personal matters, is preferred to be confidential.Thus, there is further a need for a generic solution that provides amethod and means for self-provisioning an account entry to a useraccount that has the proprietary information therein accessible onlythrough the account entry.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention pertains to improved approaches for accessing data on adata network by a mobile device or a computing device. Typically, themobile device (e.g., mobile telephone with a network browser) has alimited functionality user interface as compared with the fullfunctionality user interface of the computing device (e.g., personalcomputer).

The invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as amethod, system, apparatus, and computer readable medium. Severalembodiments of the invention are discussed below.

As a method for accessing data contained in a data network system, oneembodiment of the invention includes the acts of: sending a request to aserver hosting the data to retrieve the data by activating a key of amobile device, the request being sent by executing a first set ofprogram instructions in the mobile device, wherein the mobile device hasa display screen and is in communication over a wireless data networkwith the server, and further, wherein the data is associated with themobile device and is also accessible by a computing device executing asecond set of program instructions and coupled to the server through adata network; receiving the data from the server via the wireless datanetwork, the data presented in a first format interpretable by the firstset of program instructions; and displaying the data on the displayscreen of the mobile device.

As a computer readable medium including at least computer program code,executable in a mobile device having a display screen, for accessingdata contained in a data network system, one embodiment of the inventionincludes at least: computer program code for sending a request over awireless data network to a server hosting the data, the data beingassociated with the mobile device and accessible by a computing devicecoupled to the server through a data network; computer program code forreceiving the data from the server via the wireless data network, thedata received presented in a first format displayable by the mobiledevice and presented in a second format when accessed by the computingdevice; and computer program code for displaying the data on the displayscreen of the mobile device.

As a computer readable medium including at least computer program codeexecutable in a server hosting data, the data accessible by a mobiledevice executing a first browser and by a computing device executing asecond browser, wherein the mobile device is coupled to the serverthrough a wireless network and the computing device is coupled to theserver through a data network, one embodiment of the invention includesat least: computer program code for receiving a request from the mobiledevice through the wireless network to access the data; computer programcode for retrieving the data; and computer program code for forwardingthe data to the mobile device in a first format displayable on thedisplay screen of the mobile device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the presentinvention will become better understood with regard to the followingdescription, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:

FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of a data network in which thepresent invention may be practiced;

FIGS. 2a and 2b illustrate representations of the system architecture ofthe present invention and a layout of a corresponding user account in aserver in communication with a mobile phone and a PC;

FIG. 3 shows a typical example of a mobile device that houses oneportion of the linked and compiled processes disclosed in the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic representation of a mutual authenticationprocess between a mobile device and a host server to ensure subsequentinformation transacted therebetween is secured;

FIGS. 5a and 5b are flowchart representations showing the correspondingprocesses in each of the involved devices; and

FIGS. 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 illustrate examples of personalizing a useraccount being accessed through a self-provisioned rendezvous.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the following detailed description of the present invention, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present invention. However, it will become obviousto those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practicedwithout these specific details. In other instances, well known methods,procedures, components, and circuitry have not been described in detailto avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present invention.

The following detailed description of the present invention is presentedlargely in terms of procedures, steps, logic blocks, processing, andother symbolic representations that resemble the operations of dataprocessing devices coupled to networks. These process descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those experienced or skilled inthe art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to othersskilled in the art. The present invention is a method and system forself-provisioning a rendezvous through a thin device to ensure secureaccess by other devices to information in a database in a data network.The method, along with the system or architecture to be described indetail below, is a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to adesired result. These steps or processes are those requiring physicalmanipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily,these quantities may take the form of electrical signals capable ofbeing stored, transferred, combined, compared, displayed and otherwisemanipulated in a computer system or electronic computing systems. Itproves convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, operations,messages, terms, numbers, or the like. It should be borne in mind thatall of these similar terms are to be associated with the appropriatephysical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to thesequantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from thefollowing description, it is appreciated that throughout the presentdescription, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing,”“computing,” “verifying,” “displaying,” or the like, refer to theactions and processes of a computing system that manipulates andtransforms data represented as physical quantities within the computingdevice's registers and memories into other data similarly represented asphysical quantities within the computing device or other such device,such as storage, transmission or display devices.

Referring now to the drawings, in which like numerals refer to likeparts throughout the several views. FIG. 1 shows a schematicrepresentation of a data network 100 in which the present invention maybe practiced. The data network 100 comprises an airnet 102 that isgenerally called a wireless network, and a landnet 104 that is generallya landline network, each acting as a communication medium for datatransmission therethrough. The airnet 102, in which transmission is viathe air, is sometimes referred to as a carrier network because eachairnet is controlled and operated by a carrier, for example, AT&T andGTE, each having its own communication scheme, such as CDPD, CDMA, GSMand TDMA, for the airnet 102. The landnet 104 or the Internet, usedinterchangeably herein, may be the Internet, an intranet or otherprivate networks. Referenced by 106 is a mobile data device, butresembling a mobile phone therein, in communication with the airnet 102via an antenna 108. It is generally understood that the airnet 102communicates simultaneously with a plurality of mobile computing devicesof which only a mobile or cellular phone 106 is shown in the figure.Similarly, connected to the Internet 104 are a plurality of desktop PCs110 and a plurality of servers 112, though only one representative isshown in the figure. The PC 110, as shown in the figure, may be apersonal computer and runs a HTML Web browser via the Internet 104 usingHTTP to access information stored in the web server 112 which may be aworkstation. It is understood by those skilled in the art that the PC110 can store accessible information therein so as to become a webserver as well. Between the Internet 104 and the airnet 102 there is alink server 114 performing data communication between the Internet 104and the airnet 102. The link server 114, also referred to as a linkproxy or gateway, may be a workstation or a personal computer andperforms mapping or translation functions, for example, communicationprotocol mapping from one protocol to another, thereby a mobile device106 can be in communication with any one of the servers 112 or the PCs110.

The communication protocol in the Internet 104 is the well knownHyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and runs on TCP and controls theconnection of a well known HyperText Markup Language Web browser, (HTMLWeb browser), to a Web server and the exchange of informationtherebetween. The communication protocol between the mobile device 106and the link server 114 via the airnet 102 is Handheld Device TransportProtocol (HDTP) or Secure Uplink Gateway Protocol (SUGP), whichpreferably run on User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and controls theconnection of a HDML Web browser to a link server and a set of commandsor statements that specify how information is displayed. HDML stands forHandheld Device Markup Language, which is similar to that of HTML. Thespecifications of both HDTP and HDML, being considered as the wirelessnetwork standards, are available for additional details. Further, areference specification entitled “Magellan SUGP Protocol,” a HTTPspecification with network security features, is incorporated herein byU.S. Pat. No. 6,065,120. HDTP is a session-level protocol that resemblesHTTP but without incurring the overhead thereof and is highly optimizedfor use in mobile devices that have significantly less computing powerand memory. Further, it is understood by those skilled in the art thatthe UDP does not require a connection to be established between a clientand a server before information can be exchanged, which eliminates theneed for exchanging a large number of packets during a session between aclient and a server. Exchanging a very small number of packets during atransaction is one of the desired features for a mobile device with verylimited computing power and memory to effectively interact with alandline device.

Referring now to FIGS. 2.a and 2.b, there is depicted a representationof the architecture 120 of the present invention. As described above,the airnet 102 communicates simultaneously with a plurality of two-waymobile communication devices, 122, 124 and 126, generally from a groupconsisting of mobile phones, two-way pagers and telephones. Due to theincreasing reduction in size and weight and high portability, most ofthe mobile devices, considered as thin clients, have a very limitedcomputing power, typically equivalent to less than one percent of whatis provided in a typical desktop or portable computer. The memorycapacity in a thin client is generally less than 250 kilobytes and theLCD display thereof is perhaps four lines high by twelve or twentycharacters, the graphics capabilities thereof are very limited or nearlynonexistent and the general user interface is a keypad having far lessbuttons than a PC keyboard. Therefore, many transactions desired byusers through such clients are preferably predetermined or pre-enteredin their user accounts in a host server 128. As such, the users needonly to select desired transactions to perform or at most key in one ortwo letters corresponding to desired entries through the keypads oftheir cellular phones. For example, if there is a list of stock symbolsof interest in a user account that is designated to a mobile phone, auser of the mobile phone will not have to key in the symbols every timehe desires to look up the price thereof currently being traded in thestock market. The list of stock symbols is previously entered to theuser account. Evidently, the most available and convenient means for nowis to use a computing device that has powerful and full functionalinformation entering capabilities. A PC is a typical example of suchcomputing device, the PC can be equipped with the well-known HTMLbrowser that provides a rich graphic user interface and an idealenvironment for the user to manage his personalized information in hisaccount.

As is well known, the Internet 104 is typically a landline networkconnecting computers that utilize the HTML browser. Referenced by 110 isa PC representing one of the computers that use the HTML browser runningon HTTP to hyperlink to other computers/servers 132 or 134 toupdate/fetch information on line or simply copy files therefrom. Itshould be noted that “user account” and “database” have been used hereinsometimes interchangeably when only one account is being addressed. Itis generally understood that a database or an allocation of memory, asreferenced by 130 in the FIGS. 2.a and 2.b, hosts a plurality of useraccounts, each designated to an authorized capacity in which managed orpersonalized information is kept. Further, it is understood that thedatabase 130 can be an independent storage or physically a part of thehost server 128. To access the personalized information therein from anycomputer on the Internet 104, one has to provide an account entry,namely a rendezvous, to a user account in the host server 128 ordatabase 130 with a set of credential information such as a username anda password. FIG. 2b illustrates a layout of a typical user accountassigned with a mobile phone 106. Each mobile phone is assigned to adevice ID 140 which can be a phone number of the phone or a combinationof an IP address and a port number, for example: 204.163.165.132: 01905;where 204.163.165.132 is the IP address, and 01905 is the port number.The device ID 140 is further associated with a subscriber number 142authorized by a carrier in the link server 114 as part of the proceduresto activate the phone 106. The subscriber number may take the form, forexample, of 861234567-10900 pn.mobile.att.net by AT&T WIRELESS SERVICE,it is a unique identification to the phone 106. In other words, each ofthe mobile devices 122, 124 and 126 of FIG. 2.a has a unique device IDthat corresponds to a user account in a server. It may be appreciated bythose skilled in the art that the link server 114 does not have to be aseparate server to perform the communication protocol mapping, it can bea part of the host server 128 and the protocol mapping is part of thefunctions the host server 128 provides.

A corresponding account 144 in the database 130 is indexed by an accountstructure 143 comprising subscriber number 142, user information 146, ausername 148 and a password 150. Subscriber number 142 is received fromthe link server 114 as an index to the account structure 143. The userinformation 146 comprises the account configuration and other accountrelated information. The username 148 and the password 150, namely, theuser credential information, control the authentication to enter theaccount 144 in the database 130. From the data network perspective, anycomputer can logon through HTTP to the rendezvous 152 identified by anaddress identifier, often a universal resource locator (URL) taking theform of www.xyz.com. In other words, each account in a database isexclusively associated with a rendezvous identified by a unique URL. Asshown in the figure, the PC 110 establishes a communication session withthe rendezvous 152 based on a given URL of the rendezvous 152. However,to access the associated account 144 in the database 130, the PC 110must provide a set of a correct username and password to the rendezvous152 that performs a verification thereof with the account structure 143.If the supplied username and password match those in the accountstructure 143, the access requested by the PC 110 is allowed. Otherwise,entry to the account 144 is denied.

The PC 110 can update information stored in the account 144 when thesupplied username and password are verified. Using the powerful andfamiliar HTML browser in the PC 110, a user can key in frequentlyrequested information, such as a list of stock symbols and a list ofURLs of Web servers that provide services to the phone 106. All theinformation entered through the PC 110 becomes immediately available tothe phone 106.

A process named webpwd.cpp in the code listing in the appendedMicrofiche Appendix A illustrates a provisioning process between thephone 106 and the link server 114 in one embodiment of the presentinvention. Upon the request of the phone 106, the process, specificallyin a subprocess called setNameAndPasswordState(), allows the phone 106to supply a username and a password and then send the newly suppliedcredential information to a second subprocess called submitState() thatchecks if the entered username and password are acceptable, namely theusername and password should have a certain length and contain no spacesor unrecognized characters with respect to a general rule of being ausername and password. If the username and password are not acceptable,the subprocess submitState() returns to the phone 106 with acorresponding message being either “You must enter a name” or “You mustenter a password.” Otherwise, the newly entered username and passwordare sent to another subprocess called SetUserAuth() in a process calledHTTPDBMSUserDB. The subprocess SetUserAuth()updates the username andpassword in the account structure 143, which immediately requires allsubsequent logins to the rendezvous 152 with the newly supplied usernameand password. A subprocess Authenticate() examines a set of a usernameand password supplied by the PC 110 and compares the username andpassword from the PC 110 to the ones in the account structure 143. Ifthe comparison is successful, the subprocess Authenticate() returns aAuthPass flag that allows the PC 110 to access the account in thedatabase. Otherwise, it returns a flag that denies the admission of thePC 110 to the account.

It should be noted that the communication between the phone 106 and thelink server 114 is through the airnet 102 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.a.Messages carrying proprietary information traveling in the air are notsecure. To transact credential information over the open space toprovision the rendezvous, a user must have an efficient, reliable andsecured manner to conduct private communications with the link server.According to one embodiment of the present invention, an authenticatedand secure session between the cellular phone 106 and the link server114 must be in place before the cellular phone provisions the rendezvousthrough which the user accesses his/her account from other computers. Itis necessary to refer to an architecture of a mobile phone beforeproceeding with the detailed description of creating the authenticatedand secure communication between a user's phone (client) and a server.FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a typical GSM digital cellular phone 160.Each of the hardware components in the cellular phone 160 is known tothose skilled in the art and so the hardware components are notdescribed in detail herein. Although the user interface of the phone 160is not shown in detail in the figure, the phone 160 may be the mobiledevice 118 of FIG. 1, having a LCD screen 116 and a key pad 118. Thescreen 116 prompts a user to proceed with the keypad 118 with a sequenceof key entries, and through the phone 160, a user can interactivelycommunicate with a server through the airnet, link server and theInternet. According to one embodiment of the present invention, compiledand linked processes of the present invention are stored in ROM 162 as aclient module 164 and support module 166. Upon activation of apredetermined key sequence utilizing the keypad 118, a physical layerprocessor or microcontroller 610 initiates a session communication tothe server using the module 164 in the ROM 162.

To establish a secured communication between a cellular phone (a client)and a server, an authentication process must be conducted first toensure that only interested parties are actually in the communicationtherebetween. According to one embodiment of the present invention, thecode listing thereof being provided in the appended Microfiche Appendix,the process is complete through two rounds of independentauthentication, one being the client authenticated by the server,referred to as client authentication, and the other being the serverauthenticated by the client, referred to as server authentication.Further, each authentication is completed in two separate steps for ahigh grade of security, which will be described in detail below. Thesuccess of the mutual authentication processes provisions and evidencesthat the two communicating parties possess a valid shared secret encryptkey through a mutual decryption and a challenge/response mechanism. Themutual decryption mechanism comprises the steps of mutually recoveringencrypted messages from two involved communicating parties. Thechallenge/response mechanism, referred to as nonce verification,verifies a predetermined relationship between a sent nonce and areceived derivative thereof.

In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the authenticationprocess is conducted with three message exchanges; a Session Request(SR) 174, a Session Reply (SP) 176, and a Session Complete (SC) 178.FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic representation of the authenticationprocess. Representing a mobile device or the cellular phone 106 of FIG.1, the client 170 conducts a transaction with the server 172, such asthe link server 114 of FIGS. 2a and 2b, and initiates a Session Request174 to be sent to the server 172 by first creating a clientproto-session. A client proto-session is a session data structure thatis initialized when a session creation starts. The initialized SessionRequest 174 comprises the following essential information:

-   -   sessionID—an identifier identifying all requests from the client        to the server; in the case of requesting a session creation,        sessionID is always assigned to 0;    -   cipher—a two-byte number representing the choice of the        encryption the client is currently using as there are a number        of encryption schemes available in a communication protocol;    -   deviceID—a variable up to 255-bytes, representing the device        identifier or the client identifier, comprising a phone number        of the device or an IP address and a port number, e.g.,        204.163.165.132:01905;    -   C-nonce—a client nonce represented with a non-repeatable number,        usually 2 bytes, used for the client to conduct a following        server authentication; and    -   C-nonceModified—a modified version of the client nonce, used for        the server to conduct a nonce verification in the following        client authentication.

Further, the cipher in the Session Request 174 includes an identifier toan encryption algorithm and associated parameters thereof. To be morespecific, the first byte in the cipher represents an identifier to acombination of the encryption algorithm, the key size (e.g., 128-bit forthe U.S. or 40-bit for foreign countries) and content of a securityattachment thereto; and the second byte in the cipher indicates theadditional parameters related to the first byte. For example, value 1 inthe first byte indicates that the encryption algorithm is block cipherRC5, the key size thereof is 128 bit, a two byte check-sum therein isused as the MAC (Message Authentication Code), no IV (InitializationVector for block ciphers) therefor is transmitted over the network, andpadding bytes are added if necessary. The block cipher algorithm RC5 ispart of the RSA's BSAFE product. It can be further appreciated that theidentifier in the cipher may be assigned to a unique value to identify anon-secure session if so desired. The C-nonce is a non-repeatable numberinitially and randomly generated in the client and the modified versionthereof; C-nonceModified is generated from the C-nonce through anoperational relationship. For example, the Exclusive-OR relationship orexpressed as follows:C-nonceModified=2−byte-number ⊕ C-nonce.

It can be appreciated by those who are skilled in the art that there aremany ways to get the C-nonceModified from a C-nonce, the Exclusive-OR isone of the operational relationships used in one embodiment of thepresent invention. Both C-nonce and C-nonceModified are encrypted usingthe shared secret encrypt key between the client 170 and the server 172.The purpose of the C-nonceModified is to provide the server thatreceives the Session Request with means for ensuring that C-nonce iscorrectly decrypted and validated by examining the C-nonce and itsrelationship with the C-nonceModified. Both should not be altered aftera successful decryption of the C-nonce and the C-nonceModified. In otherwords, a Session Request message or signal may be expressed as follows:SR={session ID, cipher, device ID, Encry[nonce, nonceModified]};where Encry[] means that the parameters or contents in the bracket areencrypted accordingly. When the Session Request is sent by the client tothe server to request a session creation, both C-nonce andC-nonceModified are encrypted according to the cipher the client isusing at the time the Session Request is sent out.

Upon receiving the Session Request from the client 170, the server 172creates a server proto-session for the client 170 with a sessionidentifier, referred to as session ID, to identify the session contextfor the session just created in the server 172. A server proto-sessionis a session entry marked as a proto status in a session table, whichindicates that the session is not authenticated and is not able toconduct any transactions with the client. It is understood to thoseskilled in the art that the proto-session can be kept in the RAM of theserver. If a proto-session already exists for that client, it isre-used. The information in the received Session Request is saved in theserver proto-session. If the server 172 is satisfied with the fact thatthe client is known, namely Encry[C-nonce, C-nonceModified] in thereceived Session Request are successfully decrypted with the sharedsecret encrypt key, step one in the client authentication process issuccessful and a corresponding session key is generated and stored withthe server proto-session entry. It may be noted herein that manyencryption schemes used in this invention, such as the scheme utilizingRC5, have a procedure that adds and validates the Message AuthenticationCode, such as the check-sum, to assure that the encrypted message iscorrectly decrypted. The procedure, every time the decryption takesplace, is used herein to examine the transaction integrity, namely toensure the received messages or signals are unaltered in the cause ofdata transmission. If step one in the client authentication is notsuccessful, namely, if Encry[C-nonce, C-nonceModified] in the receivedSession Request are not fully decrypted or supported, the proto-sessionis aborted and removed from the proto session table, resulting in afailed session creation. What the support means herein is the cipherproposed or used by the client is also used by the server, for example,the client uses the RC5 encryption to encrypt Encry[C-nonce,C-nonceModified]; to decrypt to Encry[C-nonce, C-nonceModified], theserver must be equipped with the same RC5 encryption capability therein.If Encry[C-nonce, C-nonceModified] can not be successfully decrypted dueto other reasons such as transmission errors, the client must reinitiatea new session request to the server in order to establish a securecommunication with the server. To challenge step two of serverauthentication subsequently at the client side, a derivative of theclient nonce or C-nonce is generated therefor. In one embodiment of thepresent invention, the derivative is created by adding a constant to theclient nonce, for example, derivative=C-nonce+1. The purpose of thederivative is to provide the client with means for reassuring that theC-nonce is correctly decrypted by the server and the server is thecorrect server with which the client should be in communication.

Right after the successful step one client authentication, the server172 responds to the client with a Session Reply (SP) 176 to begin asecond round of authentication; server authentication. The Session Reply176 comprises the following information:

-   -   C-SID—a one byte number indicates the sessionID originally        assigned in the client, to be more specific, C-SID=0 indicates a        clear text client session, C-SID=1 indicates a shared secret key        encrypted session, and C-SID=2 indicates a session key encrypted        session. In the context of the current description, C-SID=1;    -   sessionID—a four-byte number representing an identification and        parameters, such as a session encrypt key, of the session        created by the server for the client;    -   key—a session key to be used with a mutually acceptable        encryption, and to be used for encryption and decryption in all        transactions in the session;    -   derivative—a number derived from the C-nonce for the client to        perform the subsequent server authentication;    -   S-nonce—a non-repeatable number, used for the server to conduct        a following step-two client authentication; it should be noted        that S-nonce is generated by the server and generally different        from the C-nonce by the client; and    -   cipher—a two-byte number representing the choice of the        encryption the server proposes after the client proposed cipher        is received. It may or may not be the same as the one used in        the client. To be more specific, the cipher is the same as the        one proposed by the client when the server supports the client        proposed cipher, otherwise the cipher is the one currently used        in the server.

In other words, the Session Reply can be expressed as follows.SP={C-SID, Encry[sessionID, key, S-nonce, derivative, cipher]}When the client 170 receives the Session Reply 176 from the server 172,it performs the step one server authentication, which is consideredsuccessful if Encry[sessionID, key, S-nonce, derivative, cipher] in thereceived Session Reply 176 is decrypted successfully with the sharedencrypt key. If the step one server authentication fails, the client 170discards the Session Reply 176 and a new session creation may be startedover again. Upon the success of the step one server authentication, theclient 170 proceeds with the step two server authentication; namely, thepredetermined relationship between the C-nonce and the derivativethereof should be held for a successful step-two server authentication.C-nonce=derivative−1

If the C-nonce derived from the Session Reply 176 is the same as theC-nonce originally generated by the client, the step two serverauthentication is successful; hence, the server 172 is consideredauthenticated, trusted from the viewpoint of the client, and the SessionReply 176 is accepted as a valid message, which means that the client170 then uses the session key and other information in the Session Reply176 for the session being created. Only after completing both steps ofthe server authentication successfully, the client 170 marks the sessionas committed, which means that transactions can be conductedsubsequently in the session, again only from the viewpoint of the client170. If the predetermined relationship between the client nonce and thederivative thereof does not hold, the step two server authenticationfails and the received Session Reply 176 is discarded. The client 170may abort the session creation process if no further Session Replies arereceived and pass both steps of the server authentication process duringthe time period allowed for a session creation. To provide the serverwith means for reassuring the client authentication by itself throughthe client, a derivative of the S-nonce, similar to the derivative ofthe C-nonce, is generated.

The client 170 then sends the server 172 a Session Complete (SC) 178 tocomplete the session creation process. The Session Complete 178comprises the following information:SC={Encry[derivative]};where the derivative is the client's response to the server noncechallenge, namely the result of the verification. The derivative is usedby the server 172 for step two client authentication. Further, it isnoted that the Session Complete 178 is an encrypted message, meaningthat the client encrypts the information in the Session Complete 178according to either its own cipher or the server proposed cipher.Generally the client 170 encrypts the information in the SessionComplete 178 according to the server proposed cipher if it accepts theserver proposed cipher, otherwise, it encrypts the Session Completeaccording to its own cipher.

Upon receipt of the Session Complete 178, the server 172 tests if theclient 170 uses its own proposed cipher or the server proposed cipher bydecrypting the Session Complete twice using the two ciphers ifnecessary. If the server 172 decrypts the encrypted message in theSession Complete 178 and verifies the relationship thereof with theS-nonce, the step two client authentication is considered successful.Subsequently, the server 172 promotes the server proto-session to theactive session and the session creation process is completed, thereby anauthenticated and secure communication session is established betweenthe client and the server. Any transactions in the establishedcommunications session are now encrypted by the session key created inthe server according to a cipher mutually agreed to by both the clientand the server, thereby the transactions between the client and theserver are truly proprietary. A code listing of one embodiment of themutual authentication is listed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,608.

Referring now to FIGS. 5.a and 5b, each illustrates a flowchart showingthe processes of the present invention in each involved device,respectively, in conjunction with FIGS. 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 demonstratingexamples of personalizing a user account being accessed through aself-provisioned rendezvous. A client 200, which can be a cellularphone, in FIG. 5.a is one of the mobile devices communicating with aserver 250 in FIG. 5.b through a data network similar to thoseillustrated in FIG. 1 or FIGS. 2.a and 2.b. It should be noted that theserver 250 functions as a link server and a host server. The functionalflowcharts on the client and server sides are conjointly described inthe following with respect to a cellular phone. Nevertheless, it will beappreciated by those skilled in the art that a server, without recitingspecifically a link server or a host server, as referenced by 250 canperform similar functions, this becomes evident when the client is alandline device having direct communication to the Internet.

As part of the procedures to activate a cellular phone, a user account,or sometimes called a device account, is created in the server 250, theaccount is exclusively associated with the phone or client 200. In otherwords, each mobile device in the data network has its own accountidentified by a corresponding device ID and subsequently a subscribernumber in the server 250. The account for the client 200 is thereforecreated and configured at 252 according to services subscribed by theclient 200. Meanwhile a corresponding account structure, similar to 143in FIG. 2b, is initiated at 254. With an established account in theserver 250, the client 200 becomes one of the clients capable ofcommunicating with any computers in a data network.

When a user desires to update his personalized information in hisaccount, he needs to first self-provision the rendezvous associated withhis account using the client 200. As is shown in FIG. 5a, the phonetherefore requests a communication session to the server 250 at 202 forsubsequent transactions to take place in an authenticated and securecommunication session. From the session creation described above, it canbe appreciated that the session creation requested by the client 200includes a piece of device information assigned to the client 200. Thedevice information is sent 204 to the host where a determination is made206 whether the device information is recognized. If the deviceinformation is not recognized by the contacting host 250, nocommunication session can be possibly established therefor.

Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 5.b, the host 250 receives the sessionrequest 258 from the client 200 as part of the session creation process.The device information is received at 260 and the session creationprocess proceeds when the device information is verified at 262, whichmeans that the device 200 has an authorized account therein. At 208 and264 a mutual authentication process between the client 200 and server250 takes place. As described above, the mutual authentication processcomprises a client authentication and a server authentication, eachfurther comprising two steps to ensure that the communicating party isauthenticated. Resulting from the mutual authentication process or oncethe session is created and established at 210 and 266 of the client 200and the server 250, respectively, a set of session credentialinformation is generated. The session credential information comprises asession ID, a session key and a session cipher. The session ID is usedto distinguish the session from other sessions that the host is creatingor has already established with other mobile devices or clients, and thesession key and the session cipher are to encrypt transactions betweenthe client 200 and the server 250. At 212, the client 200 hasacknowledged that there is a rendezvous associated with the accountdesignated to the client 200. If the user desires to update hispersonalized information in the account created and authorized in theserver 250, he may proceed at 214 with the rendezvous that is generallyidentified by a URL provided by the host 250 and is subsequentlyprompted for a set of user credential information, such as a usernameand a password. At 216, the user credential information is entered. Thecredential information is then sent to the server 250 at 218, whichincludes a process of ensuring the newly supplied username and passwordsatisfy a general rule of being a username and a password. Theusername/password ensuring process has been discussed above and the codelisting thereof is in U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,608.

Meanwhile, as is shown in FIG. 5b, the host 250 has acknowledged thatthe client 200 is about to receive a set of new user credentialinformation and expects it therefrom at 268. As soon as the new usercredential information has arrived, the server 250 updates the usercredential information associated with the rendezvous at 270. In otherwords, to pass through the rendezvous to the user account now by otherdevices, the new credential information must be provided.

With the newly updated user credential information, the user can now logonto the rendezvous from any computer in the data network. A PCconnected to the data network (not shown), is equipped with a familiarHTML-based browser. As an example, it is assumed that a user has justprovisioned a rendezvous with a username being “marylee” and thecorresponding password being “123456”. The user now goes to a networkedPC that runs a browser and logs onto the rendezvous based on the URL ofthe rendezvous. FIG. 6 shows an interactive web page 300 received fromthe server after the PC makes the connection to the rendezvous. It isunderstood to those skilled in the art that the page and subsequentpages can be constructed with HTML along with CGI script/Java applets,where the process, “CGI” stands for Common Gateway Interface, to receiveinformation entered from a user. To update his personalized informationin his account, the user must provide the newly created username andpassword required at 302 and 304, respectively. It should be noted thatthe password entered is generally not echoed at 304 and insteadindicated with an asterisk corresponding to each letter entered. Whenthe login icon 306 is activated, the entered username and password areretrieved and sent, through the network, to the server in which theentered username and password are verified; namely, the entered usernameand password match those entered and authorized by the user through theclient. The user is then prompted with a second web page 310, shown inFIG. 7, in which the username is displayed as referenced by 312. Tocategorize personalized information in the account, the web page 310comprises entries to other specific service pages, such as a PersonalOrganizer 314, Bookmarks 316 and Create Message 318. All these pages areaccessible by the user to personalize his desired information therein.FIG. 8, for example, is a page 326 of the Personal Organizer 314 showinga personalized address book 320 that allows the user to edit hisfrequently contacted people's phone numbers and other information. FIG.9 is a page 328 of the Bookmarks 316 showing personalized bookmarks 321that allows the user to establish a list of web sites he may frequentlyvisit through his cellular client. For example, StockTIPS referenced by322 allows the user to keep a list of stock symbols there. With thepersonalized bookmarks, the user, when on the go, can quickly enter intothe web pages in his list related to stock to find the prices thereofcurrently being traded in the stock market without keying in any symbolsat all. As a convenient feature, a page 330 in FIG. 10 allows the userto create an email message and be replied to at a different address 332as decided by the user, which eliminates the inconvenience of typing alengthy message through a phone keypad and reading a replied message atthe small screen in the client.

The contents in the exemplary pages shown in FIGS. 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10composed by HTML are accessible by an HDML browser through a serverproviding communication protocol mapping and markup language translationfunctions. Similarly, information or messages entered on the clientcomposed by HDML are equally accessible by any computer equipped with anHTML browser through the same server in the data network. The duality ofthe information updating through two different mark-up languagesprovides a useful means for efficiently managing a personal account andsubstantially solves the problems of inconvenient data entry through aless functional keypad.

The present invention has been described in sufficient detail with acertain degree of particularity. It is understood to those skilled inthe art that the present disclosure of embodiments has been made by wayof example only and that numerous changes in the arrangement andcombination of parts as well as steps may be resorted without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed. For example, anymobile devices equipped with a micro browser, e.g., HDML browser, may beconnected, using an adapter, to the Internet directly without goingthrough the airnet. The emerging Internet-enabled electronic appliancesare also Internet-connected, all have limited computing power andkeypads but are capable of communicating with a server in a datanetwork. The mutual authentication between such devices and the serverthus becomes less complicated. The mutual authentication needs a processof having the client, such as a controller of the electronic appliance,authenticated by the server and having the server authenticated by theclient. The process can be carried out in existing encryption mechanismsin HTTPS (an extended version of HTTP with built-in security), in whichcase, the link server could be replaced by a built-in capability in thedevice, or the HTTPS or the transceiver or somewhere in the connectionto the Internet. The principles of the present invention may still bepracticed in such configuration. Accordingly, the scope of the presentinvention is defined by the appended claims rather than the foregoingdescription of one embodiment.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for accessing data contained in a datanetwork system, comprising: receiving a request from a mobile devicethrough a wireless data network to access the data, the data beingassociated with an account for the mobile device and the mobile devicehaving a display screen, wherein the data is accessible by a computingdevice remotely located and coupled to a data network selected from agroup consisting of the Internet, a private network and a network ofpublic and private networks; retrieving the data after the request isauthenticated with respect to the account; and forwarding the data tothe mobile device in a first format displayable on the display screen ofthe mobile device.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:prompting the computing device for credential information when thecomputing device attempts to access the data; and providing access tothe data in a second format after the credential information isverified.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: updating thedata upon receiving updated information from the computing device. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein the first format is used to display thedata on the mobile device and the second format is used to display thedata on the computing device.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein thefirst format is a first markup language and the second format is asecond markup language.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the datacomprises a plurality of hyperlinks, and further, wherein the retrievingfurther comprises: contacting a resource identified by the one of thehyperlinks over the data network; fetching the data in a second formatfrom the resource; and converting the fetched data to the first format.7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first format is a first markup andthe second format is a second markup language.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the data comprises data for configuring or reconfiguring afeature of the mobile device.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein themobile device is a wireless telephone.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein the mobile device includes a processor, and further, wherein theprocessor controls a telephony function.
 11. The method of claim 1,wherein the request includes an update to the data and causes the datato be updated.
 12. A method for accessing data contained in a datanetwork system, comprising: receiving a request from a mobile devicethrough a wireless data network to access the data, the data beingassociated with an account for the mobile device, the account beingprovisioned after the mobile device has been authenticated in accordancewith a first authentication process between the mobile device and aserver system that hosts the account, and the mobile device having adisplay screen, wherein the data is accessible by a computing deviceremotely located and coupled to a data network selected from a groupconsisting of the Internet, a private network and a network of publicand private networks; retrieving the data after the request isauthenticated with respect to the account in accordance with a secondauthentication process different from the first authentication process;and forwarding the data to the mobile device in a first formatdisplayable on the display screen of the mobile device.
 13. Acommunications apparatus for accessing data contained in a data networksystem, the communications apparatus comprising: a server system,including at least one processor, configured for receiving a requestfrom a wireless-communication user device through a wireless datanetwork to access the data, the data being associated with an accountfor the wireless-communication user device, the account beingprovisioned after the wireless-communication user device has beenauthenticated in accordance with a first authentication process betweenthe wireless-communication user device and the server system, and thewireless-communication device having a display screen, wherein the datais accessible by a computing device remotely located and coupled to adata network selected from a group consisting of the Internet, a privatenetwork and a network of public and private networks; wherein the serversystem is configured to forward the data to the wireless-communicationuser device, in response to the data being retrieved after the requestis authenticated in accordance with a second authentication process, ina first format displayable on the display screen of thewireless-communication user device, wherein the second authenticationprocess is different from said first authentication process.
 14. Acommunications apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the firstauthentication process utilises an identifier associated with thewireless-communication user device.
 15. A method according to claim 12,wherein the first authentication process utilises an identifierassociated with the mobile device.
 16. A communications apparatusaccording to claim 13, wherein the second authentication processutilises a username and password associated with a user of the remotelylocated computing device.
 17. A method according to claim 12, whereinthe second authentication process utilises a username and passwordassociated with a user of the remotely located computing device.
 18. Amethod for accessing data contained in a data network system,comprising: receiving a request from a mobile device through a wirelessdata network to access the data, the data being associated with anaccount for the mobile device, the account being provisioned after anauthenticated session is established between the mobile device and aserver system that hosts the account to form a provisioned account, andthe mobile device having a display screen, wherein the data isaccessible by a computing device remotely located and coupled to a datanetwork selected from a group consisting of the Internet, a privatenetwork and a network of public and private networks; retrieving thedata after the request is authenticated with respect to the provisionedaccount; and forwarding the data to the mobile device in a first formatdisplayable on the display screen of the mobile device.
 19. Acommunications apparatus for accessing data contained in a data networksystem, the communications apparatus comprising: one or more servers,including at least one processor, configured for receiving a requestfrom a wireless-communication user device through a wireless datanetwork to access the data, the data being associated with an accountfor the wireless-communication user device, the account beingprovisioned after the wireless-communication user device has beenauthenticated by the one or more servers in accordance with a firstauthentication process between the wireless-communication user deviceand the one or more servers, and the wireless-communication devicehaving a display screen, wherein the data is accessible by a computingdevice remotely located and coupled to a data network selected from agroup consisting of the Internet, a private network and a network ofpublic and private networks; wherein the one or more servers isconfigured to forward the data to the wireless-communication userdevice, in response to the data being retrieved after the request isauthenticated by the one or more servers in accordance with a secondauthentication process, in a first format displayable on the displayscreen of the wireless-communication user device, wherein the secondauthentication process is different from said first authenticationprocess.
 20. A communications apparatus according to claim 19, whereinthe first authentication process conducted by the one or more serversutilises an identifier associated with the wireless-communication userdevice.
 21. A communications apparatus according to claim 19, whereinthe second authentication process conducted by the one or more serversutilises a username and password associated with a user of the remotelylocated computing device.